Overview, Page 2

Simple research, e.g., 12 Brit 555, “Week,” shows, as does Steiner, that the names of the days of our week represent the long ages, i.e., “days,” of creation, and that this ancient knowledge antedated Moses but was perceived by him and related to some extent in the Biblical account. Three ages have preceded our present Earth stage:

These were “Conditions of Consciousness,” prior to any materialization such as could have been detected by a present-day human being. Each Condition passed into a state of rest, in effect dying to be reborn in a condition of enhanced newness. The fourth such stage, or Condition of Consciousness, is that of Earth. The part of Earth evolution prior to the Incarnation of Christ is represented by Mars, the part since by Mercury, appropriately called “the morning star” in Rev 2,28. Our simple research confirms that Tuesday is Mars’ Day and Wednesday is Mercury’s Day. Earth (i.e., our solar system) will die or pass away and be reborn in the ennobled Jupiter Condition of Consciousness—this is Jupiter’s (Thor’s) Day, or Thursday. Today’s senses will be of no use there, just as they were of no use in those Conditions prior to Earth, but consciousness will greatly increase. The Jupiter Condition will then expire phoenix-like into the Venus Condition, represented by Venus’ Day, Friday. The seventh and final Condition, within the scope of spiritual investigation, is that called Vulcan, the octave, for it is the mirror image of the first stage in humanity’s creation and descent, when its perfection will be attained and all the lower kingdoms redeemed. These Conditions of Consciousness are what the largest available spiritual lens shows to constitute the seven pillars (Prov 9,1). But each Condition is again and again divided into seven, so that enormous eons of time interspersed by timelessness are involved in the marvel that humanity, with all its entanglement, represents.

All of this emanated from the “Word” of God, which is recognized as the Christ. We are told that it was “with God in the beginning” (Jn 1,1), and if we visualize Christ as “the Son” of God, the Eternal Masculine, then there was also from the beginning (Prov 8,22) the fruitful Eternal Feminine, the highest and holiest “Virgin” aspect of the Spirit.

Between this Trinity (here, at this stage, considering the Eternal Masculine and Feminine as still divinely One) and Humanity were the Hierarchies, a major part, at least, of the Heavenly Host. The Hierarchies are ninefold, being in three ranks of three. The highest rank comprises, in descending order, and using their names as reflected in scripture, the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones; the second rank (though variously ordered by different Christian authorities) comprises the Dominions, Powers and Authorities; and the third rank the Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Steiner gave each of these a name in keeping with its character in the creative process. The Greek terminology corresponded with the English terms, but it is noteworthy that the Hebrew term for “Authorities,” or for the “Exusiai” in Greek, was “Elohim,” the plural term used for God in Gen 1. Yahweh was one of the seven Elohim, the one who sacrificially took up abode on the Moon while the others served from the Sun. Careful attention to the Genesis account will clearly reveal this. Notably the Elohim were, according to Steiner, called “Spirits of Form,” and thus in the final materialization of the Earth Condition they were the gods who served most directly as the divine agents, and in the case of Yahweh, of the particular “Form” of the Hebrew Folk. St. Paul can be considered the source of the high knowledge of these Hierarchies. It is he who used their Christian names, and he was the high teacher of Dionysius the Areopagite (Acts 17,34), who formed the School of Athens. In keeping with the ancient occult tradition, its teachings were oral, but they were finally reduced to writing by “Pseudo-Dionysius” around the early sixth century. Dante’s divine vision also gave the Hierarchies, and they were well known among eminent Christians, including Aquinas, until the sixteenth century when materialistic Christianity lost this spiritual view of the universe.

The earliest creation of humanity, which was during Old Saturn, began with the sacrifice by the Thrones, and thereafter through all the stages humanity and its lower kingdoms came into being through progressive sacrifice by the descending orders in the Hierarchies, it being a sacred law that not only human beings but beings at even such high levels advance only by sacrificing themselves, that is, dying to be reborn at higher spiritual levels.